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Baby Rabbit's Hanukkah
At the beginning, Minka Bear's mother was reading a book about Hanukkah to Baby Rabbit, Purple Bear, the Twins and Spike-thing. During the course of the story, they place themselves in the action, with the babies as the Jews at the time a powerful Greek king "Antonica" (actually Syrian king Antiochus IV) took over and forced their Greek culture onto them. But Judas the Macchabee, or Judas Macchabaeus (our Baby Rabbit), is mad as heck, and cannot take it anymore; thus, leading his fellow Jews to war against the Greeks. Meanwhile, in the present, the Bunnies are preparing to celebrate Chanukah at the Beth Shalom Jewish Center (their local synogogue; Mr. Bunny the "Hanukkah Boy" (as per Grandpa Bunny) calls it a church), but the celebrations turned sour when Boris Bear's father found out that his old high-school nemesis, Schlomo (a.k.a. "the Meany of Hanukkah" to the kids) was going to play the Greek king at this years celebrations instead of Boris. Knowing the dangers, they help put a stop to the personal war going on between Schlomo the "Greek" and Boris the "Macchabee". Trivia Notes *The opening production logo and title card are in blue with a white shadow on a black background with loud blubbering sounds playing. Viewers of Flipnote Monsters would get the idea, as that show starts in a similar fashion. *Also, another departure is the way this show was animated, using 6x and 7x speed, rather than the regular 5x speed. This was also carried over from Flipnote Monsters. *We learn that Spike-thing has started going to a day-care center. *We also know that Boris grew up with Schlomo in Russia. Previously, Boris' mother country was not revealed until now. *Finally, we see Cynthia (Angelica's favorite doll) in "live-action" form for the first time, in her TV Christmas special, "A Very Cynthia Christmas". We, more or less, see what Cynthia really looks like BEFORE she was placed in Angelica's hands. *Beginning with this episode, Bob Mothersbaugh replaced Denis Hannigan as co-musician with Mark Mothersbaugh. *Before the commercial, and again before the closing production logo and MTV logo, the show "cuts" to black, rather than the usual "fade". *Theologically speaking, King Antiochus IV was forcing Greek culture on the Jews. However, what this special didn't tell you that he was actually the king of Syria, who was a fan of Greek culture. Complete details can be found in most better dictionaries and encyclopedias (under "Antiochus" and "Macchabee"), as well as many Bible concordances (the complete account of the Macchabees is chronicled in the Jewish and Roman Catholic versions of the Old Testament). This was not the first time religious history was slightly rewritten; the history of Passover was also slightly rewritten for Rugrats. *Also, it is interesting to point out that the menorah oil portion of Chanukah was not chronicled in the Old Testament, but was first told in another Jewish holy book, the Talmud. *This episode is also an educational Rugrats episode, at least by Nick's terms. This episode was showcased in Nick's early-morning (5:30AM ET & 6AM ET) Cable In The Classroom line-up in 1997, 1998 & 2001. For more on Nick's educational TV efforts, click here. *In the book version, the plotline was the same, but does not include the Rugrats' version of the story. Also, in the book, Boris wears sandals in the play, while he wears shoes in the original TV version. The book has the treaditional version of the Chanukah story on the last page. *This episode is also ranked # 5 in TV Guide's 10 Best Classic Family Holiday Specials, published in the 11/27/1999 issue. For the complete list, see the news page. *In this episode, there is a scene where Stu and Grandpa, unwittingly, found themselves in a holiday parade, while taking the menorah to the synogogue. In the original telecast, and all showings through 1998 (I think), "Let It Snow" played, while they travel in the parade, but in all showings after 1999, the music was changed to "Deck The Halls". Apparently, the change was made, due to rights issues with "Let It Snow". *On the CBS telecast on 12/1/2001, Houston affiliate KHOU ch.11 showed only a few minutes of this special, due to special election coverage. For details, see Baby Rabbit and the Santa Experience. *Throughout this episode, Baby Rabbit, Spike-thing, the Twins and Purple Bear are designed the same clothes as the babies in Rugrats (Baby Rabbit - Tommy; Spike-thing - Chuckie; Young Purple Bear - Phil; Blue Bear - Lil; Purple Bear - Angelica, shirt in place of dress), which this show has rip-offs of that show. As anyone who watched any of the first 65 episodes would know, they weren't in those clothes.